At present, a customer typically orders and purchases goods in-store or in a drive-thru window with the assistance of a human sales representative or cashier. However, both of these options used by merchant entities can prove to be quite cumbersome and expensive. For example, a customer must usually read through all the menu-options provided by the merchant entity (e.g., a retail store, fast food restaurant, etc.) in order to decide which option he/she would like to order and subsequently place an order at a point of sale counter manned by a sales employee using a traditional payment instrument, such as cash, a check, or a payment card. This process is not automated and can be inconvenient since the customer must interact with a salesperson that may make errors or may not be readily available at the point of sale counter or drive-thru window when the customer is ready to place an order for a product. Similarly, in many instances, a customer frequently visits the same store on different occasions and orders the same goods/service, yet must still order goods using means that require human interaction while placing the order.
Accordingly, there exists a need for methods, systems, and computer readable media for detecting customer presence to initiate the ordering and purchase of goods and services.